National Mowers

Has anybody in the Atl. area ever demo or use National Mowers, mainly their reels for cutting lawns? Just wondering how they work without the hydraulics like the Toros and others?
I would love to reel more lawns this year, wish I could get a good used sidewinder, I see Locke has a new rider, I think they are out of the Walker market.

Has anybody in the Atl. area ever demo or use National Mowers, mainly their reels for cutting lawns? Just wondering how they work without the hydraulics like the Toros and others?
I would love to reel more lawns this year, wish I could get a good used sidewinder, I see Locke has a new rider, I think they are out of the Walker market.

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Only used Nationals on the golf course,never used them on residential turf.
They cut good in their domain,but one ugly machine. Here,s a site you might want to take a look at.

I ran a National Tri-plex for years maintaining residential and athletic turf sites.
The biggest problem was maneuverability and you always had to think ahead before turning.
The machine is built well, not so easy to maintain the reels if you aren't skilled at it already, and aside from the maneuverability was comfortable to drive all day long.
The reels have two heights for lift - the first one is the "transport" lift where all you do is move the L shaped handle on the right side of the frame and the wing reels raise - but don't forget the rear reel as it has it's own lift handle.
The second position requires getting off of the machine to lift the wing reels into a locked "storage" position.
The machine is easy to repair but lends itself towards homemade repairs rather than factory part replacement.
If you are looking for a used National I would advise against it unless you are very, very familiar with the make-up of these machines or know of a mechanic who is.
The advantage the NAtional mower has over other utility tri-plex's is storage space - those wing reels makes it real easy to put on a trailer.